Document Scanning Revolutionizes Personal and Business Banking

In an effort to slash costs and become increasingly pertinent to the new economy, personal and business banking organizations are turning to document scanning by the truckloads. But is this new technology catching on? Several banks and an award-winning company weigh in.

Document Scanning the Swiss Way
In a case study commissioned by the Swiss financial group Basler Kantonalbank (BKB), the bank created an innovative records management system by linking high-speed production scanners to a 500-gigabyte NAS Hitachi storage system and Dell computers. The result was a serious reduction in labor hours filing personal documents and receiving check deposits.

Document Scanning Cuts Courier Costs
Sometimes, all it takes to push a bank into the new age is some good old-fashioned regulation. The Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act (Check 21) is one such piece. When Bank Mutual made the leap to document scanning out of compliance, they found a wealth of other benefits. Its distributed document imaging solution enabled Bank Mutual to cut courier service costs by $250,000.

Kodak is the New Face of Document Scanning
According to AllBusiness, the Kodak Company wins the blue-ribbon for peripherals at the FOSE 2008 Conference and Exposition. The company’s KODAK i780 Scanner beat out all other document scanners and multi-function printer/ copiers with respect to image quality and rapid capture speed. Look for the i780 Scanner coming to a bank near you.

Document scanning certainly appears to be the wave of the future in the banking world.

It's the Scanner, Stupid

One of the best things you can do for your office, if it already hasn't been done, is to buy a scanner. However, don't buy a scanner that makes you feel stupid.

Before purchasing a document scanner, evaluate:

-- Ease of use, for instance if there is an Automatic Document Feeder
-- Ease of storage, after the documents have been scanned
-- Ease of searchability, after the documents have been scanned
-- Ease of training new people on the scanner
-- Ease of clearing paper jams from the scanner

It is great to have a smoothly running office scanner, but certain scanners, they just make you feel stupid. It keeps jamming up, then you start hitting it, or it takes forever, and you start hating it.

Buy the right scanner for your needs and your office can be a happier workplace.

Nuance, eCopy, and the New Document Management Frontier

In yet another sign that document imaging is on the inexorable rise, Nuance has acquired eCopy. This is going to be an interesting combination of companies.

Nuance makes all sorts of interesting products, including Dragon speech recognition products, mobile texting applications, and PaperPort document management software.

The acquired company, eCopy, has more narrowly focused on document scanning, imaging, and general "workflow" solutions, including multi-function printers.

The joining of these companies indicates the continued integration of various types of communications data and equipment. Document imaging providers traditionally have cornered the "input" side of things as far as scanning documents into the digital world, while speech input software has been another, not especially related niche industry.

Now that so many documents are already digital, with millions upon millions becoming digital by the day, it's time to put it all together. Nuance and eCopy will look to do just that.

Document Imaging and the Franchising Phenomenon

I attended the Franchise Expo today and I have to say it is amazing how the concept of franchising has impacted the American business scene. As Michael Gerber explains in his excellent book, The E-Myth, an entrepreneurial spirit takes you far when you have a system to work within.

From income tax preparation franchises to restaurants and back again, the L.A. convention center sparkled with positive energy as aspiring business owners sized up their options.

For the proprietor of this humble document imaging blog, the franchise mania on display brought to mind thoughts of creating a franchise to specialize in document imaging.

It seems there is at least one document imaging franchise already in existence, but with all the work coming down the pike (electronic medical records), it would be a shame if some clever soul didn't create a document imaging franchise within the next three to six months.

If you're an expert in document imaging, and would like to own your own business, consider building a franchise prototype. If that interests you and at the risk of repeating myself, I do very heartily recommend Mr. Gerber's fine book to lead you through the process.

Document Scanning Is Incredibly Cool

One thing that you may be underestimating, if you're a business decision-maker looking for a document scanning solution, is how incredibly cool document scanning actually is.

You can't say you don't impress when you pop a stack of paper into a high-resolution scanner with automatic data feed, and then that machine turns that mess into a digital file that can be saved forever and easily found via digital search...

If you're engaged in scanning in front of customers, the effect can be downright impactful. Something about the way you scan, the fact that you are so facile with that stuff, is bound to impress that customer with your professionalism.

When speaking of document imaging, image matters. And that includes the clean, green, mean image your business portrays when it uses document imaging technology effectively.

Document Imaging Is the Solution to Bank Overdraft Fees

OK, that headline may be slightly overblown. But only slightly, because document imaging technology may soon help bank customers avoid overdraft fees.

Overdraft fees, which are expected to generate $39 billion in revenues for banks in 2009, are often caused by the fact that banks run withdrawals immediately, but do not run deposits immediately.

For example, you can swipe your debit card to buy some gas and it goes through right now. But the paycheck you deposited two days ago is still not credited to your account.

Therefore, your gas purchase causes an overdraft, which costs you $35.

Enraged by such practices, bank customers are fighting hard for a solution. Document imaging may be just such a solution.

If you can scan your paycheck from your home computer or even your cell phone, and then send the scanned image to the bank, banks may start crediting deposits sooner.

Document imaging has already greatly changed how banks do business. It looks like that trend will continue.

Document Imaging Becoming New Revenue Source for Crafty Companies

Document scanning has always been a wonderful tool for storing files without filling up entire warehouses with filing cabinets. And most companies at least begin the foray into document imaging by exploiting the storage, record-keeping component.

But some--increasingly many, actually--companies are going beyond the storage utility of document imaging to create new revenue streams with document imaging technology.

AIIM had a nice case study of a company called Security Benefit that illustrates this point. Sign up at AIIM as a member to download the full report, but the short version tale is this:

Security Benefit handles retirement investments, and has reduced its overall IT costs 40 percent by automating its paper processes, which are very intensive.

Now, Security Benefit is selling its document imaging-fueled system as a product, to other companies in its industry. The selling point, easy: we reduced our IT costs 40 percent.

Can your company go beyond the basic uses of document imaging to actually create new revenue from document imaging? We wouldn't rule it out.